There are many devices used by surgeons for the purpose of making incisions in patient tissue. These devices often use RF current supplied to a cutting probe, where current flows through patient tissue then back to a patient pad when making such incisions. These devices do not typically use heat for making an incision.
Additionally, there are many existing cautery devices which use direct current to heat up a cauterizing probe. These devices often use a resistive material, such as nichrome, for their cauterizing probe. Once current is supplied, the resistive material is configured to heat up in a similar manner to a stove or toaster wire. It usually takes a significant amount of time for these devices to both heat and cool. Furthermore, due to the nature of energy transfer, these direct current cauterizing probes often lose a significant amount of heat the instant they are brought into contact with material to be cut.
There are few prior art devices which do exist which use the principles of RF cutting probe, i.e. transferring RF across tissue to make a cut, but also apply heat. However, these known heated RF cutting devices require the transfer of a significant amount of RF current across tissue.
Thus, a heated resonant surgical blade, and method of use thereof, would be well received in the art.